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谁在糊弄 谁擅长“甩锅”?看这些国家的减排承诺就一目了然

刚刚庆祝完印度传统节日——排灯节的新德里,迎来了一次超级严重的雾霾。燃放烟花爆竹等庆祝活动,导致新德里市区空气质量严重下降,能见度急剧降低,污染指数达到最高的“严重”级别,也就是在401-500之间。据美联社报道称,新德里的地标性建筑尼赫鲁体育场,污染指数甚至一度飙升至惊人的999。 微信图片_20211110162253.jpg 图源:World Air Quality Index Sitemap 11月7日新德里农场燃烧秸秆产生的污染物在PM2.5污染中所占比例为48%,达到本季节最高水平。根据美国国家航空航天局卫星的记录,11月1日-6日期间旁遮普邦、哈里亚纳邦和北方邦共发生了21623起焚烧秸秆事件。 而在遥远的英国格拉斯哥,印度总理莫迪在COP26上承诺,印度在2070年前实现碳中和。 面对承诺50年后碳中和的远大目标,印度的碳中和道路在哪里? 在走向碳中和的道路上,空气污染问题是挡在印度面前的第一只拦路虎。 据世界环保组织报告显示,全球30个空气污染最严重的城市中,印度就占了一大半,其中新德里、巴特那、瓜廖尔、赖布尔这4个城市直接包揽了“世界前四”,可见其环境问题之严重。 一项由亚洲多国科研机构合作进行的针对新德里空气污染的研究指出,新德里所在的印度北部主要城市空气污染源来自当地的工业活动、城市建设、机动车尾气、道路扬尘、发电厂排放,以及城市周围农村地区的排放活动。 由于空气污染,2020年印度新德里就有44%的儿童肺功能下降,约600万例的哮喘发作都直接与空气污染有关,印度的环境污染问题已经严重影响到了下一代,但这貌似并没有引起印度当局的注意。 位于新德里的非营利组织科学与环境中心(Centre of Science and Environment)空气污染小组负责人阿努米塔·罗伊·乔杜里(Anumita Roy Chowdhury)表示,过去10年来政府的重点行动和法院命令确实降低了空气中有害颗粒物的浓度,但总的来说AQI指数依然很高。她认为新德里需要将排放量减少60%,才能达到清洁空气的标准。 而发展必须依赖能源的支持。国际能源署(IEA)2021年2月表示,到2040年,印度的国内生产总值(GDP)预计将增至8.6万亿美元,能源消耗预计将接近翻番。这样的能源缺口,必然主要依赖传统能源填补。 根据印度新能源和可再生能源部公布的数据,2019年印度56%以上的电力能源来自燃煤。专家测算显示,按照目前的发展速度,到2030年印度仅能完成200千兆瓦左右的非化石燃料发电产能。在未来,印度能否找到可替代的绿色能源也考验着印度政府的执政能力。 又要经济发展,又要减少雾霾最终实现碳中和,印度政府的工作任重道远。 除了空气污染,污水和垃圾也是挡在印度碳中和道路上的巨大障碍。 今年6月,印度总理莫迪公布了一项雄心勃勃的计划:要在2024年前实现全国自来水管覆盖,让所有印度人都用上自来水。但管道有了,水从哪来? 印度中央污染控制委员会2021年3月的数据显示,印度城市地区每天产生的污水超过72亿升。但综合污水处理能力略低于每天32亿升,不到总量一半。 未经处理的污水是印度水源的主要污染源,导致一系列疾病,包括腹泻(每年造成35万印度儿童死亡)、农业污染和环境恶化。城市贫民经常生活在蚊子和细菌滋生的肮脏的排水沟和运河旁。 恒河岸边的400多间制革厂,将污水直排到河里。这些水含有酸、硫化物、氯化物、防腐剂,更有致命的碱式硫酸铬——铬是一种致癌物。 更不要说居民生活污水的处理率。目前,在印度农村,依然约有1.13亿户家庭没有厕所。印度总统莫迪曾于2014年发起了为期五年的“清洁印度”运动,旨在提升城市环境卫生,改善农村公共厕所环境,消灭露天排便情况。然而,印度国家统计局报告显示,2019年,仅有71.3%的农村受访家庭表示能用上厕所。 通过仪器检测,印度恒河水的溶解性总固体(指溶解于水中的总固体含量)水平达到700以上,比安全标准数高出五倍之多。 曾是印度泰米尔纳德邦加亚电视台的台长KP·苏尼尔说,对于印度的中低收入阶层而言,每月收入只有150~250美元,却要花100美元来用水——和吃饭的花费相当。人们要到处找水、花费本可以用来打工谋生的时间排队等水、花大价钱买瓶装水用于饮用和做饭。 在印度孟买,有一座历史最久、规模最大的垃圾场——迪昂纳垃圾场。 根据印度智库科学与环境中心的估计,2020年,这个垃圾场有近247个橄榄球场那么大。据统计,该垃圾场去年堆积了约1200万吨垃圾,堆积高度最高达到了36.5米。这些垃圾还产生了甲烷、硫化氢和一氧化碳等有毒气体。2016年,垃圾场的一场大火持续了一周,烟雾迫使70多所学校关闭。 今年,印度总理莫迪发起了一项“清除垃圾”计划,他表示将清除城市里的垃圾山。他补充说:“该计划将确保未经处理的废水不会留到河流中。” 但愿这项宏伟的计划能够得以落实。 澳大利亚:不说更不做 在COP26上,澳大利亚是一个“特立独行”的存在。 “即便是澳大利亚尽了最大的努力,在全球气候问题上,澳大利亚依旧落后世界其他国家。”RENEW ECONOMY如此评价澳大利亚在气候变化上的“成果”。 在国际环保组织的应对气候变化排行榜上,澳大利亚的评价是“poor”,以发达国家身份跻身全球最差之列。 在全球各国努力携起手来共同应对全球气候变化的难题时,澳大利亚的不作为遭到了很多环保机构的尖锐批评。专门研究国际环保政策的德国观察在2019年把世界54个主要排放国家的应对政策进行了评分,澳大利亚的得分是“0”。德国观察在报告中直言:“澳大利亚就是全球环保合作框架下拖后腿的那股力量。” 甚至在美英法等西方发达国家看来,澳大利亚应对气候变化的政策可以算得上是发达国家“之耻”。英国广播公司的报道认为,澳大利亚并未遵守巴黎协定的承诺,其应对气候变化的表现可以直接说是不合格。 澳大利亚到底做了什么,让全世界群情激奋? 作为全球第15大温室气体排放国和煤炭、液化天然气(LNG)和原油的主要出口国,近年来,澳大利亚在气候承诺上表现不佳,碳排放量不降反升。澳大利亚曾经承诺,在2030年前减排26%至28%,回到2005年的水平,但这被英国等国家认为“缺乏决心”。 澳大利亚正在实现其在2015年《巴黎协定》下的二氧化碳减排目标,但净零承诺可能要等到2022年联邦选举和政治情绪的潜在转变之后。 2000年,时任总理约翰·霍华德明确表示澳大利亚不会批准《京都议定书》。2014年,澳大利亚废除实施不到3年的“碳税”政策。 在巴黎气候大会上,澳大利亚曾经承诺,到2030年该国碳排放量与2005年水平相比要减少26%~28%。去年年底的预测显示,到2030年,澳大利亚的碳排放量将仅比2005年的水平低16%。 如今,仅有2000多万人口的澳大利亚排放的温室气体总量占全球排放量的3.6%。而按人均计算,澳大利亚人的二氧化碳排放量是美国人均的四倍。 为了挽回颜面,在COP26前夕,莫里森政府终于公布了一项新的气候计划,承诺澳大利亚到2050年实现“净零碳排”目标,还为此印制了精美小册子来宣传这一目标。 但在长达126页的“净零”排放指导文件,不仅细节严重缺失、目标模糊不清,反而明确表示不会立法,甚至不会通过强制手段督促减排。 英国《卫报》援引气候专家的话指出,澳大利亚的“净零”排放计划只是重新宣布了现有的举措,并没有提出明确的目标或时间表。《独立澳大利亚》杂志则称,“莫里森政府正在用一套谎言和一本册子来糊弄澳大利亚人。” 美国:指责别人前能不能先做好自己? 在COP26上,一场国际媒体记者会被意外打断。 “打断一下,你能不能直接用英文回答问题?”美联社记者突然发问打断了中国气候变化事务特使解振华的发言。 这种无理让在场的记者纷纷一愣,会场气氛变得紧张微妙起来。 “不如你用中文提问。”解振华哈哈一笑。幽默的话语让全场爆发出一阵大笑,美联社记者垂下头。 在随后回答这位美国记者的提问时,解振华说,正是在中美双方共同努力下,2015年联合国气候变化大会达成了《巴黎协定》。《巴黎协定》反映了世界发展的大趋势,来之不易,不能轻言放弃,但美国上届政府后来却宣布退出《巴黎协定》,“耽误全球应对气候变化多边进程长达5个年头,美国现在应该赶紧追上来,与我们一起合作”。 这位美国记者的做法与美国当前在气候变化问题上的态度如出一辙。 可以说,美国深谙“甩锅”真谛。 拜登在出席联合国气候峰会时,曾就特朗普政府退出巴黎气候协定的决定向其他国家领导人道歉。拜登表示,美国的退出使自身未能实现其气候目标,“我想我可能不应该道歉,但我确实要为美国上届政府退出巴黎协定这件事道歉”。 美国前总统特朗普2017年6月宣布美国将退出该协定,称其是一场“代价高昂的骗局”,给美国带来了巨大的财政和经济负担。 2020年11月4日,美国正式退出该协定。此举遭到美国国内和国际社会的广泛批评。 虽然今年1月20日,美国总统拜登拜登就任总统首日就签署行政令,宣布美国将重新加入巴黎气候协定。但美国近年来在气候变化领域的一些“不作为”依旧遭到国际社会的广泛指责。 11月7日,美国杂志《纽约客》刊文细数了美国政府这些年在气候问题上的不作为。文章提到,如果美国在三十年前就开始以身作则,今天的情况将会大不相同。 纵观1990年以来美国温室气体的排放趋势,及其在应对气候变化方面出台的政策、采取的行动,清晰地向世界展现了其不负责任做法。 尽管克林顿政府签订了《京都议定书》,但共和党控制的国会参议院从未批准该议定书,小布什政府上台后美国又迅速宣布“退群”。 美国曾明确的“将在第一承诺期(2008-2012年)将其温室气体排放比1990年减少7%”承诺。然而,在落实其承诺方面,美国表现让人大跌眼镜,不仅没有实现其温室气体的减排承诺,却展现出了其政府无视国际规则的另一面。美国的排放量不但没有减小7%,反而还增加了。 2019年,发达国家温室气体排放总量达到166.98亿吨二氧化碳当量(单位下同)。其中,美国排放量就达到65.58亿吨,是发达国家排放总量的39.28%;与1990年(基准年)相比,美国温室气体排放不但没有出现下降,反而增加了1.80%,不降反增! 此次COP26上,拜登承诺,到2030年,美国温室气体排放量将较2005年的水平减少50%-52%。鉴于2005年美国人均碳排放量为20.8吨,这意味着美国提议到2030年将其人均碳排放量减少到10.4吨。但这意味着,到2030年,美国的人均碳排放量应该达到目前世界平均水平的220%。 这也意味着,到2030年,美国的人均碳排放量将比中国当前的人均碳排放量高42%。这不是领导全球气候变化,而是彻彻底底的破坏者。 说一套,做一套,最拿手的是“先下手为强”先给别人泼脏水,祸水东引。美国的“甩锅”确实玩得很溜。

दिल्ली में मौसम की पहली घनी घुंध, चार वर्षों में सबसे लंबे समय तक बने रहने का अनुमान: सीएसई

दिल्ली और राष्ट्रीय राजधानी क्षेत्र में मौसम की पहली घनी धुंध छा गयी है और इसके दो और दिनों तक रहने की आशंका है। विज्ञान एवं पर्यावरण केंद्र (सीएसई) ने बुधवार को यह जानकारी दी। हालांकि, दिल्ली में मौसमी धुंध घनी है लेकिन अक्टूबर के मध्य से आठ नवंबर तक पराली जलाने से होने वाले धुएं का औसत दैनिक योगदान पिछले चार वर्षों में सबसे कम रहा है। सीएसई में अनुसंधान की कार्यकारी निदेशक अनुमिता रॉय चौधरी ने कहा, ‘‘जाहिर तौर पर मौसम की प्रतिकूल परिस्थितियों (ठंडी और शांत हवाओं) के संयुक्त असर, पराली और पटाखे जलाने से मौसम की धुंध छा गयी है।’’ सीएसई ने बताया कि पिछले चार वर्षों की धुंध की पहली घटना की तुलना करने पर मौजूदा धुंध 2018 और 2020 की पहली धुंध की अवधि से मिलती है जो छह दिनों तक रही थी। अगर परिस्थितियों में सुधार नहीं होता है तो यह 2019 की धुंध से भी अधिक समय तक रह सकती है जो आठ दिनों तक रही थी। सीएसई ने कहा, ‘‘दिल्ली के औसतन दैनिक पीएम2.5 में अक्टूबर से आठ नवंबर के दौरान धुएं का योगदान पिछले चार वर्षों में सबसे कम रहा है। अभी तक यह प्रतिदिन औसतन 12 प्रतिशत दर्ज किया गया जबकि पिछले साल 17 फीसदी, 2019 में 14 फीसदी और 2018 में 16 प्रतिशत था।’’

New Delhi smog spikes after festival

Air quality in New Delhi worsened in the days after a grand festival and at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was attending the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow. From "poor" air quality recorded on Nov 1, air quality in New Delhi slipped into "hazardous" by the weekend following Diwali, north India's greatest festival, according to the Central Pollution Control Board of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Air quality in New Delhi was in the "very poor" category on Nov 2 for the first time this season and the readings got worse in the following days. Despite a ban, people across the city lighted firecrackers late into Thursday night to celebrate Diwali, worsening pollution levels. A thick layer of smog blanketed New Delhi, a city of nearly 20 million people, on Friday morning, and people from several parts of the city and its suburbs complained of itchy throat and watery eyes. "People are walking into hospitals and clinics, saying they're breathless and heavy in the chest due to pollution over the past few days," said Rashmi Sama, a pulmonologist at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. The PM2.5 concentration stood at the maximum reading of 999 per cubic meter in some parts of Delhi on Friday, according to the Earth Sciences Ministry's System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research. Several places recorded figures close to or higher than 500, which is categorized as "severe". Air quality index in various areas slipped to the "severe" category on Friday morning. Farm fires, firecrackers New Delhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Friday that the city's air quality had deteriorated due to a surge in farm fires and some people lighting firecrackers during Diwali despite a ban. The Delhi government banned the sales and lighting of firecrackers this year to curb pollution levels. Rampant incidents of stubble burning around New Delhi during this season have further aggravated the situation. According to air quality information service SAFAR, stubble burning accounted for 36 percent of Delhi's PM2.5 on Friday, the highest so far this season. Fire and smoke emanating from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana states are carried by winds to Delhi, mixing with Delhi's own rising pollution. Carbon dioxide emitted by 12 million vehicles in Delhi, industrial plants and billions of dust particles from construction sites are other major pollution sources in Delhi, according to government reports. "It can be expected that smog episodes this year might have higher peak pollution if special steps are not taken to reduce pollution from the sources," stated a 2021 pre-winter analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment.

Yamuna frothing: What causes froth in the river and why is it dangerous

Froth in Yamuna: A layer of froth seen was floating over parts of the Yamuna river on Monday near Kalindi Kunj. The pictures of Chhath devotees standing in toxic foam-laden water to offer prayers is also surfacing on the internet. In this article, we explore causes of frothing in the Yamuna river, why it is dangerous and what has been done so far to clear the mess. The froth is nothing but a sign of a polluted river. According to the experts, release of untreated or poorly treated effluents could lead to the frothing. Sewage network and industrial waste also leads to toxic frothing. Giving further explanation, Sushmita Sengupta, Senior Programme Manager of the Water Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said phosphates present in the river causes froth. Surfactants and phosphates found in detergent in households and industrial laundry gets dumped into rivers and all the sewage is not treated, she was quoted as saying to the Indian Express.com. Giving reason for foaming around this time of the year, Sengupta explained that the river right out is in a lean phase and the water flow is less at this time of the year. Pollutants are therefore not diluted. Except for this, the turbulence at the barrage near Okhla also forms foam from the phosphates, a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) official added. Yamuna Monitoring Committee, last year in July, had asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to inspect and submit reports on this matter. The report submitted by the CPCB in August last year suggests that the foam formation takes place at two locations–downstream of the ITO and Okhla barrages. The water that falls after discharge from the Okhla barrage stir the foaming agents present in the water. Who is at a major fault? Delhi Jal Board has very little to do with the frothing. The frothing is seen only near Kalindi Kunj, downstream of the Okhla barrage, said a senior DJB official. He also added if only Delhi was to be blamed for frothing, it would have been seen across the entire stretch of the river, after the Wazirabad barrage, since drains begin emptying into the river from there. The officials have also stated that a drain that comes from UP gets dumped into the river near Kalindi Kunj. The drain contains untreated sewage and thus pollutes the river. As per the Indianexpress.com, Raghav Chadha, Vice-Chairman, DJB on Monday said Okhla barrage comes under the irrigation department of the Uttar Pradesh government. The layer of foam floating in the river near the Okhla barrage is due to the detergents and toxic waste. “Around 155 MGD of water reaches the Okhla barrage with all sorts of waste, industrial discharge, chemicals and detergents. Of this, 105 MGD is released by the Haryana government into the Yamuna through the Najafgarh drain. The remaining 50 MGD is released by the UP government. The water falls from a height, so the untreated waste turns into foam. We have written multiple times to the UP government to treat the water before releasing it, but we keep seeing this,” Chadha was quoted as saying in the Indian Express. Has anything been done so far? yes. In June this year, the DPCC banned the sale, storage and transportation of soaps and detergents not meeting the quality standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The now disbanded Yamuna Monitoring Committee had said that such a ban can be imposed. Though BIS standards for detergents have been improved, it is still not clear whether these standards have been met eventually, the fifth report of the NGT appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee from last year noted.Samples have also been collected from the river near Okhla barrage to check phosphate levels, a senior DJB official noted. The DJB, however, does not monitor the levels daily, though samples are taken whenever required, he added. Delhi govt deploys boats to remove froth Amid rising criticism over the formation of foam in the Yamuna, the Delhi government on Tuesday deployed 15 boats to remove the froth with the help of ropes. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) is said to conceive the plan and implement it with the help of the Irrigation Flood Control Department and Revenue Department. “Fifteen teams have been deployed to remove the foam in the river. The exercise will continue till the current frothing episode comes to an end,” an official was reported as saying to news agency PTI. Pictures and video clips of Chhath devotees offering prayers in the Yamuna with foam floating on the surface of the river are going viral on the internet. The frothing had triggered a political slugfest between the ruling AAP and Delhi’s BJP. The BJP leaders alleged that the AAP government did not allow Chhath celebrations on Yamuna banks to seal the “pathetic” state of the river, while AAP’s Gopal Rai and Raghav Chadha are blaming the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments for the frothing in the river.

Can India deliver on 2070 Net Zero Glasgow pledge?

In the first major breakthrough since the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) opened in the Scottish industrial city of Glasgow on November 1, 20 countries have agreed to stop funding fossil fuel projects abroad. This is expected to release $18 billion annually for clean energy. But though the conference’s India-born president, British Cabinet Office minister Alok Sharma, emphasised the importance of phasing out coal, India was not among the signatories. Neither was Australia, which said candidly that it wants to develop technology, not “wipe out industries”. Interest stirred, however, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 12-minute speech promised that all the carbon emitted into the atmosphere would be retrieved for underground storage or absorbed by trees — achieving “net zero” emission — by 2070. But the applause was mixed with censure. After all, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had announced in August this year that all nations must reach “net zero” emissions by 2050 if global warming was not to exceed pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5°C. Most, including the United States and the European Union, have already accepted this target. Even the world’s top polluter, China, has promised to reach “net zero” levels by 2060, beating India by a decade. India’s most outspoken environmentalist, Sunita Narain, director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment, warns that global warming presents the world with an “existential threat”. It isn’t something that governments can tackle individually. They must act together in pursuit of common goals like afforestation, arresting desertification, controlling rivers, preventing floods, and saving crops. What they say and do must also be readily verifiable. At the same time, Ms Narain dismisses these targets as a “complete distraction” as she condemns the duplicity of the Western powers and the “noxious game” the Western media is playing. Their case is without equity because it equates long-standing hardened climate criminals (to coin a term!) with innocents and allows the West to pass off token payments for past (and present) misdeeds as aid or charity. Oxfam has already exposed how loans for road building and other infrastructure projects are camouflaged as climate funding. India’s finance minister, Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, had brought this up during her visit to Washington last month, pointedly asking: “So, what constitutes $100 billion?” The absence of any reliable accounting mechanism is one major drawback in assessments by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Another is the opacity that makes it impossible to verify the Chinese claims regarding emissions. China’s declaration a few weeks before COP26 that it would end investments in overseas coal projects may have been only a PR exercise since China is the world’s biggest public financier of coal. If true, it could mean cancelling over 40 gigawatts of pipeline projects in 20 countries. That includes at least nine coal-fired projects (out of 18 “priority” energy undertakings costing around $19.55 million) in Pakistan, which is one of the Belt and Road Initiative countries where coal is an important source of energy. Also unsolved at the time of writing is the mystery of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s complaint that the COP26 organisers did not provide a working video link for him to address the Glasgow meeting, and he had to send a written statement instead. Despite Ms Narain’s reservations about targets, some say of India’s decision that it’s better late than never. India was the last G-20 country to declare a “net zero” emission date. Although 20 years behind the recommended target, it may be more realistic than a pie-in-the-sky promise like the rich nations pledge in 2009 to channel $100 billion annually to poorer countries by 2020. Mr Modi called it a “hollow” promise in Glasgow. The G-20 — which includes 19 countries and the European Union — accounts for 80 per cent of the global gross domestic product, 60 per cent of the world’s population and about 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, while several members of the bloc are vulnerable to climate change, the group excludes a number of island nations and most of Africa. South Africa is its only African member. Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries (which have chosen Bhutan as their spokesman) are especially neglected. As Australia has boldly acknowledged, growth can mean pollution. That is also why India has so far been reluctant to accept the “net zero” concept. However, there is a way out of this dilemma -- the rich countries which polluted the atmosphere in the past in their race to industrialise can atone for the spoliation by providing the money and technology for the developing world to achieve growth without pollution. The question now is whether Third World leaders can deliver what they have promised. Seventy-eight per cent of India’s electricity is thermal and 70 per cent of its energy comes from coal and oil. Switching to renewables for 50 per cent of its power in less than 10 years, as Mr Modi promised in Glasgow, might have been easier if India had followed up on Dr Manmohan Singh’s 123 Agreement with US President George W. Bush and developed nuclear energy more seriously. Mr Modi asked the richer countries to pay $1 trillion per annum. “When we all are increasing our ambitions on climate action, the world’s ambition could not stay the same on climate finance as was agreed at the time of Paris,” he said, implying that fulfilment of even his 2070 pledge calls for increased funding by the richer nations. To quote Ms Sitharaman again: “Funding is continuing to be a question of worry for many countries, as much as even the transfer of technology.” If they do make a commitment, will it be another hollow promise? If funding and technology are available, will the developing world live up to all the expectations? Someone must ensure that both are honestly deployed for the right purpose on a global basis. There is no denying that the richer countries, meaning the Western powers, have historically cheated and exploited the Afro-Asian nations. Tragically, the current world offers many instances of Afro-Asian rulers cheating and exploiting their own people. Foolproof inspection and audit is really the only way out.

Explained: What causes frothing in Delhi’s Yamuna?

Experts say the release of untreated or poorly treated effluents, including sewage from those parts of the city that are not connected to the sewerage network and liquid waste, could lead to frothing. In what has become a repeat occurrence in the city, a layer of froth was seen floating over parts of the Yamuna river near Kalindi Kunj on Monday, with Chhath devotees standing in toxic foam-laden water to offer prayers. What causes frothing in the Yamuna? The froth is a sign of a polluted river. Experts say the release of untreated or poorly treated effluents, including sewage from those parts of the city that are not connected to the sewerage network and industrial waste, could lead to frothing. Specifically, phosphates in the river form the froth, said Sushmita Sengupta, Senior Programme Manager of the Water Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Surfactants and phosphates from detergents in households and industrial laundry find their way into the river, as all the sewage is not treated, Sengupta said. Explaining the reasons for foaming around this time of the year, Sengupta said the river is in a lean phase and the water flow is less. Pollutants, therefore, are not diluted. The turbulence at the barrage near Okhla generates foam from the phosphates, a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) official added. After formation of foam in July 2020, the now-disbanded Yamuna Monitoring Committee had asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to inspect and submit reports on the matter. The CPCB report submitted in August last year notes that foam formation takes place at two locations – downstream of the ITO and Okhla barrages. The water falling after discharge from the Okhla barrage causes the surfactants and foaming agents present in the wastewater or in the sludge on the river bed to get agitated, forming foam. Who is responsible for cleaning up the mess? Officials of the Delhi Jal Board have been pointing to the location of the frothing to suggest that the phenomenon has little to do with the DJB itself. The frothing is seen only near Kalindi Kunj, downstream of the Okhla barrage, according to a senior DJB official, who added that if the sewage from Delhi was to blame, the frothing would have been seen across the entire stretch of the river, after the Wazirabad barrage, since drains begin emptying into the river from there. “There is a drain that comes from UP and empties into the river near Kalindi Kunj. The drain contains untreated sewage that pollutes the river,” the official said. In a briefing on Monday, Raghav Chadha, Vice-Chairman, DJB, said the Okhla barrage is maintained by the Irrigation Department of the Uttar Pradesh government, and that the layer of foam floating in the river near the Okhla barrage is due to detergents and toxic waste. “Around 155 MGD of water reaches the Okhla barrage with all sorts of waste, industrial discharge, chemicals and detergents. Of this, 105 MGD is released by the Haryana government into the Yamuna through the Najafgarh drain. The remaining 50 MGD is released by the UP government. The water falls from a height, so the untreated waste turns into foam. We have written multiple times to the UP government to treat the water before releasing it, but we keep seeing this,” Chadha said. Also Read |Ban on Chhath at banks of Yamuna to hide rising pollution: Manoj Tiwari However, it is not only near the Okhla barrage where phosphates are present in excessive quantities in the river. “It must be that the load of pollutants is high at that point near Okhla, which is why we see the foam at that point,” Sengupta said. The CPCB report submitted to the Yamuna Monitoring Committee last year said that phosphates and surfactants were not detected upstream of Wazirabad, but were observed between ITO and downstream of the Okhla barrage. The DPCC report also submitted to the committee last year said that the highest concentration of phosphates (13.42 mg/litre) and surfactants was found at Khajoori Paltoon, downstream of the Najafgarh drain. The concentration at the Okhla barrage was 12.26 mg/litre, and the level at the Nizamuddin Bridge was 11 mg/litre. The concentration at Palla was 9.78 mg/litre. In the drains, the highest phosphate level was found in the Najafgarh drain (74.5 mg/litre), followed by the ISBT drain (65.5 mg/litre), Barapulla drain (57.2 mg/litre), and Indrapuri drain (54.2 mg/litre). High phosphate levels were also found near the Bhalswa bridge. What has been done about it? In June this year, the DPCC banned the sale, storage and transportation of soaps and detergents not conforming to the quality standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The now disbanded Yamuna Monitoring Committee had recommended that such a ban be imposed. Newsletter | Click to get the day’s best explainers in your inbox The fifth report of the NGT-appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee from December last year, notes that though BIS standards for detergents have been improved, it is not clear whether these standards will actually be enforced. “The role of regulatory bodies like CPCB, DPCC and PCBs is generally limited to implementing discharge/effluent standards,” the report said. A senior DJB official said samples are being collected from the river near the Okhla barrage to check phosphate levels. The DJB does not monitor the levels daily, though samples are taken when required, he said. Chadha, in his briefing, referred to DJB’s Interceptor Sewer Project (to treat the sewage being emptied into river via drains) and upgrading the technology of STPs.

China has failed to revive the stale North-South conflict at Cop26

Beijing is instead trying to weaponise the argument of historical legacy, with help from Jair Bolsonaro’s government in Brazil and a shrinking group of business-as-usual emitters. But research released this week by Carbon Brief shows that China and Brazil account for a larger share of the accumulated carbon legacy since 1850 than claimed, once you include deforestation and land abuse. The US is still the great emitter. It has gobbled up a fifth of the carbon budget used so far. China is at 11.4pc, Russia 6.9pc, Brazil 4.5pc, and Indonesia 4.1pc, with the UK well behind at 3pc and drifting down each year. Crucially, India is no longer going along with China’s script, even though they are nominally in the same Cop negotiating bloc with Russia and Brazil known as Basic. It has an extremely low share of per capita legacy emissions – a quarter of Chinese levels – yet Narendra Modi has committed to a drastic change in India’s mid-term CO2 trajectory with a target of 50pc renewable power by the end of this decade. Lord Stern says it is possible that India will achieve peak emissions before 2030 despite a fast-growing population, and even though it is still in the early catch-up phase of economic growth. This is the under-appreciated miracle of Glasgow. But it also reshuffles climate geopolitics. “We cannot compare India and China. It’s time we de-hyphenated the two,” Sunita Narain from New Delhi’s Centre for Science and Environment. China has become Glasgow’s awkward customer. While legacy emissions matter – and may end up at the International Court of Justice – current emissions have greater moral potency. What grates is the pattern of China’s behaviour since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in late 2018 that critical tipping points are closer than previously supposed. It is worth viewing the Cop26 press conference on the ‘Ten New Insights in Climate Science 2021’ for a quick tour d’horizon of what is going on at the cutting edge of global research. Basically, everything experts were worried about last year, they are even more worried about a year later. The risks are hardening. The warming threshold deemed likely to trigger feedback loops and unstoppable ‘cascade’ effects keeps falling as the science evolves, with a “very high risk” at barely above two degrees.

Times New Roman: Modi’s Meeting With Pope And The Message For Indian Christians

PM Narendra Modi’s personal equation with the Pope relieves India’s Christians; at the G20 summit he promises jabs for the world; at COP26 in Glasgow the premier pledges that the country would attain net zero emissions by 2070 If a photograph can gladden the hearts of Indians of a particular religious faith, it has to be this. Images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, in a warm embrace during their meeting at the Vatican last weekend has spread hope among Christians, particularly Catholics. The PM has invited the Pope for a visit to India. The Vatican has indicated that considering the pontiff’s tight itinerary, a visit could only materialise in the latter part of 2022. The meeting is significant, considering the West’s concern about religious freedom in India since Modi took office in 2014. The PM was in Rome for the G-20 summit when he called on the Pope. Reports of sporadic attacks on churches by hard-line fringe groups, who accuse Christians for converting Hindus, has led to disquiet in the community. In 2020, a US panel on religious freedom had pinpointed India as a “country of particular concern” and had provoked the Indian government to accuse them of bias and a “new level of misrepresentation”. In 2017, when Pope Francis was planning his visit to neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar, he also wanted to visit India. For reasons unknown, that didn’t happen. When in Rome, Western leaders often meet the Pope. US President Joe Biden, a practising Catholic, met the Pontiff a day before Modi. Biden is under fire from US Catholics for his support of abortion. In a signal to conservative Catholics back home, Biden said that the Pope had called him a “good Catholic”. Indian premiers like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and I.K. Gujral had called on earlier Popes. But for Modi to do so is more significant. Moreover, there was speculation that the Vatican could raise the prickly subject of religious freedom. The meeting between Pope Francis and Modi cleared all doubts. The meeting, scheduled for 20 minutes, extended to an hour, as the two shared views about the pandemic and climate cha­­nge. The Argentine born Pope is a climate activist and speaks out against the unbridled capitalism. Like all South Americans, he is also a football fan. Prime Minister Modi presented the Pope with a silver candelabra and a book, The Climate Climb: India’s strategy, actions and achievement, detailing the government’s environmental act­ion. Francis gave Modi a collection of his teachings and a bronze medallion with the Italian inscription, ‘The desert will become a garden’. From Archives Attacks On Hindus In Bangladesh A Blow To PM Sheikh Hasina’s Secular Credentials At the G20, Modi sold the India story and stated that the country would produce five billion vaccine jabs by the end of 2022. Both India and the world would benefit. From the Vatican, Modi drove to the G-20 summit venue, the first in-person meet since the pandemic. The grouping generally deals with the economy, but this time around, Covid-19 was at the front and centre of the conference. The disruptive pandemic has devastated economies, sparing neither rich nor developing nations. Supply chain economics, which broke down during the pandemic and made the world aware of how everyone depended on China, was also an imp­ortant element of the G-20 discussions. Missing the mega gathering was Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. US relations with both China and Russia are in the doldrums, with Biden following former president Trump’s lead and regarding Beijing as the main threat to American supremacy. The US’ jousting with Russia continues apace. As the world hopes to repair economies and ens­ure equitable distribution of the vaccine, opening up countries for travel was also discussed. The pandemic led to countries closing borders, but a habit of protectionism persisted even after vaccines became available. Richer nations cornered more shots than required, leaving large parts of the developing world, including countries in Africa, woefully short of vaccines. At the G-20 summit, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made a strong pitch for vaccine equity. He later tweeted: “Vaccine inequality is prolonging the pandemic at great human and economic cost. Today...I urged leader at #G20Rome­Summit to show leadership to save lives, prevent further suffering, and enable a full global recovery.” Riding on the back of one billion vaccinations administered in India, PM Modi sold the India story in Rome. Reminding G-20 leaders that India was the pharmacy of the world, Modi explained how the country had ramped up production capacity and was in a position to produce five billion vaccine jabs by the end of 2022 for India and the world. This, he said, would solve the problem of limited supplies. India produces vaccines and markets them at prices affordable to poorer nati­ons, unlike major Western pharmaceutical firms. During the AIDS epidemic in Africa, it was Indian pharmas’ cheaper drugs that helped save lives. On the heels of the G20 summit comes the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP 26, in Glasgow. It is organised by the UK’s Boris Johnson together with Italy’s Mario Draghi to review progress of commitments made by countries at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. In Glasgow, Modi had a bilateral meeting with Johnson ahead of the COP 26. The big-ticket item up for discussion here is the free trade agreement between India and the UK. But the focus in Glasgow will be on climate change. China, US, India, Russia and Japan are the world’s largest polluters. But it is an unfair grouping, for the US and other Western industrialised nations have been offenders for far, far longer periods, when India and China had little industrial development. The argument has always been about the richer nations providing funds for developing nations to switch to clean technology. In Paris, they promised $100 billion annually for the transition, but it has not been kept. Climate activists demand that countries agree on a ‘net zero’ emission target by 2030. India had flatly refused till now, saying it is in no position to do so when it is trying to change the lives of a billion citizens. Finally, on November 1 in Glasgow, Modi pledged a net zero emissions goal for India by 2070. Admittedly, coal, that satiates much of our energy needs, is a foremost polluter. Modi has been championing a solar alliance. Wind is ano­ther source. But new technologies are expensive. “India needs to do more in its self-interest, not because of its contribution or responsibility,’’ says environmentalist Sunita Narain. Despite sol­­emn promises made by the Centre on protecting the environment, state governments care little for fragile ecosystems and trample upon them in the name of development. Forests are destro­yed for minerals and stubble burning by farmers continues unabated. Climate change has caused devastation in India, and frequent floods, drou­g­hts, and high temperatures are the norm. It is to be seen how India goes about to keep its promise of zero carbon emissions in 50 years time. “We need development and energy access, but given that the world has run out of carbon space, we must in our self-interest do more. But for this we need global leadership and transfer of finance and technology,” she adds. The rich world, ins­tead of lecturing developing nations, needs to put their money where their mouth is. (This appeared in the print edition as "Marked In Carbon")

COP26 And India: How Digitalization Could Be The Gamechanger

The COP26 summit held in Glasgow last week was of critical importance to the human race. Countries reiterated their commitments to the Paris Climate change agreement and many of the countries improved over their previous commitments. Nations of the world collectively acknowledged the tell-tale signs of climate change and came together to formulate and commit to a global action plan with concrete deliverables in 2015 under the Paris Climate Change agreement. The agreement targeted various deliverables including a committed effort to keep the global average temperature increase well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. However, the efforts have not been seeing much success since then. The two key reasons for the less-than-expected success were the lack of the technology transfer from the western world and the failure of the developed world to deliver on its decade-old promise of mobilizing at least US $100 billion every year from 2020. While some of the countries including India have taken a conscious decision to pursue the self-driven path of sustainability and ecological balance, the larger world has slowly been becoming more and more vulnerable to man-made events related to climate change. The threat of submergence looms large on about 570 cities of the world by 2050 and out of these 12 cities may belong to India alone. In this perspective, the COP26 summit held in Glasgow last week was of critical importance to the human race. Countries reiterated their commitments to the Paris Climate change agreement and many of the countries improved over their previous commitments. India stood out in terms of undertaking various goals, some of which were overdue and some others being very inspiring and exemplary. India, despite having 17 per cent population, contributes only 5 per cent to global emissions. This point was profoundly brought out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while presenting the world with ‘Panchamrit’ – the five solutions. The Panchamrit includes - By 2070, India will achieve the target of net-zero emissions. India will reach its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030. India will meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030. The country’s emissions intensity, or emissions per unit GDP, will be reduced by at least 45 per cent by the year 2030 from the 2005 levels. In its existing target, India had promised to reduce its emissions intensity by 33 to 35 per cent by that date. By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy to less than 45 per cent. A deeper look into ‘Panchamrit’ would indicate that the success of these five goals would impinge on the implementation blueprint of the first one which is about achieving the target of net zero emissions by the year 2070. Net-zero basically refers to the equation of equilibrium between the greenhouse gases emitted into the ecosystem and the greenhouse gases being taken out of the ecosystem. In the case of India the fossil fuel-based power generation, which is about 210 GW of coal-based capacity and about 65 more gigawatts under various stages of construction, is one of the key contributors to the greenhouse gases emission along with large fossil fuel-based vehicular load. On India’s strategic and conscious drive towards decarbonization through renewables augurs well to the cause. India has shown at least a clear commitment to transition from fossil fuel to green energy. Our current target is 225 GW renewables by 2022 with the next key milestone being the installed capacity to generate 450GW by 2030. This target of 450 GW now stands enhanced to 500 GW under renewed COP 26 targets. The Central Electricity Authority’s projection indicated that the country would need to have an installed capacity of about 1130 GW by 2030. Further, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has done a projection for the country’s energy mix for 2030 which shows that out of the required capacity of 1130 GW by 2030, the country will need to have solar energy installed capacity of 280GW and wind energy installed capacity of 140GW. The rest of the energy needs will come from nuclear. Similarly, the CEEW also estimated that solar capacity shall be ramped to 5,630 GW by 2070, and the wind capacity shall be 792GW by 2070. India must start swiftly moving to electric cars and to biofuels for heavier vehicles for meeting Glasgow targets. Similarly, it is expected that the industry may have to fast drive hydrogen as reliant fuel. Heavier dependence on renewables, increased penetration of green energy in the grid and mass adoption of EVs cast a significant unbalancing threat to the grid. As we stand today, 70% of energy need in the country is met from fossil fuel, and the renewables other than hydro contribute to less than double-digit share in the energy sense. Meeting a commitment of 50% of energy from renewables would have significant grid balancing concerns on account of energy variability these sources bring to the grid, particularly in view of the fact that the share of hydro and gas-based energy has been dwindling in recent times. Further, more penetration of EVs would enhance local grid imbalances as our distribution network at the last mile is certainly not in the best of shapes. The meticulous demand-side management of the grid based on granular demand-side data and building the digitalization components of the grid for having universal smart grid has to be the imperative requirement for meeting such steep commitments on decarbonization. The country has been positioning on the digital transformation of the grid for some time now. The biggest single commitment towards digitalization comes from the drive for smart metering and smart grid. India has very timely come out with Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) which has placed a financial commitment of more than 3 lac crores from the central government towards various digitalization initiatives. The country has already installed about 3 million smart meters and targets to install about 100 million meters by 2023 and complete transitioning to smart metering by 2025 had 250 million smart meters. The granular data coming from smart meters and deeper data analytics along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools shall provide the strong means in the hands of the grid operators to manage the demand side of the energy. The AI based intervention in the grid can help the management of energy peaks in the wake of variability issues of renewables and also shall solve the grid balancing requirements. India’s renewed commitment under COP 26 shall trigger the massive wave of fast forward digitalization in the Indian grid, which provides a significant revenue upside for the Indian power sector. The digitalization process would also help plugging the ever-increasing losses of Indian Discoms leading to expected savings of about Rs 10 lakh crores and also have a massive further potential upside of revenue through value-added services based on big data analytics and AI initiatives.

Environment Policy draft prepared 3 years ago still crying for govt’s approval

SRINAGAR: Every now and then, the government through its public information department disburses information about its seriousness of keeping the environment safe. More than a dozen departments are at work for the purpose, implementing scores of laws meant for saving the environment. But the government is yet to clear the Environmental Policy, the file of which is making rounds for many years to get the needed approval. And this is despite the fact that degradation of the environment is on a large scale everywhere. The draft of the Environment Policy which was prepared by the Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing more than three years back, remains hanging, shifting from one department to the other. The policy was drafted to direct efforts towards environmental issues and four weeks’ time was given to seek comments and suggestions from stakeholders, Non-Governmental Organisations, civil society groups and government departments. “The process has all happened, but the approval is still awaited,” said officials in the know of the status of the policy. “The absence of policy means that the government doesn’t have any action plan to address the causes of degradation.” This approach is the same as that of the previous political government towards the issue. Sources said, “What to talk of previous governments when even the present administration is not paying any attention towards the necessity of having an Environment Policy.” From the government’s media blitzkrieg of actions taken to conserve water bodies, forests, and mountains, one can make a guess of how much the government wants to advertise its concern for the environment. But not even a single environment report prepared by any leading research body suggests any improvement in the health of the environment in Jammu and Kashmir. According to the well-known Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), all the 10 glaciers in Jammu and Kashmir are among the 39 glaciers in India that have been found to be at high risk. As per the report, these glaciers are melting fast, with a 40 percent increase in their water levels recorded in the last decade. What can this change in glacier conditions do to life on earth? Researchers have found that it can first fill up the glacial lakes with earth, which can cause floods beyond control of the existing infrastructure. “The glaciers need to be monitored closely to avoid any disasters,” the report warns. In this case a clear environmental policy could have speeded up the work towards the protection of the glaciers. Officials said that the non-serious approach of the forest department is the key hurdle in getting the policy approved.

COP26: India accuses developed countries of ‘outsourcing’ pollution after criticism over climate summit pledge

Critics say India’s 2070 net-zero date is far later than almost any other country – but business groups in the country say developed nations must provide support if they want more While critics have claimed India’s commitments at COP26 in Glasgow do not go nearly far enough, business leaders and environmental activists in the country welcomed the pledges and called on developed nations to provide support if they want more. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2070. To acheive this he said that by 2030 the country would increase its installed renewable energy capacity to 500 gigawatts; ensure that half of India’s power capacity comes from non-fossil-fuel resources; reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes; and reduce the carbon intensity of the economy by 45 per cent. Detractors point out that the 2070 net-zero date is far later than almost any other natoin, including other major polluters such as China and Russia, which have promised to reach net zero by mid-century. But trade bodies in India say that Mr Modi has taken a bold step. A fresh start’ “We consider the commitment made by the Prime Minister at the international level as a fresh start to combat climate change,” said Rajeev Singh, Director-General of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the nation’s premier business and industry body. “It is a huge decision considering that India is still heavily dependent on fossil fuel and coal consumption for power. Our rural villages have been completely electrified just two to three years ago but still, people do not have access to electricity in their households. Our country has to keep a balance between development and climate goals. “We require the support of developed countries for climate finance as several multinational companies are producing their goods here [in India] due to low production costs and selling them in other countries. It is leading to outsourcing of pollution, and therefore they should financially help India in the transition.” Read More - Featured Image Read More COP26: Against all expectations, cautious optimism is bubbling up in Glasgow Even Mr Modi in his speech stressed that India expected developed countries to make $1tn available as climate finance as soon as possible. India also held off from signing the UK-led Leaders’ Declaration at the summit on ending deforestation by 2030, which has been signed by over 100 countries. “India is a rich cultural country with strong connection and mythological beliefs related to forests,” said Arihant Kothari, deputy manager of NASSCOM, India’s top tech industry trade body and chamber of commerce. “Various reports suggest that the green cover in the country is increasing due to sustained efforts of afforestation by the government and campaigns by the citizens in saving the environment. Considering these aspects, India might go ahead with the treaty once there is more awareness on environment and less degradation.” ‘India’s emissions rate is low compared to developed nations’ Some environmentalists in India claim that the country has set an example and taken up a leadership role with its announcement. “There was no pressure upon India to act immediately as its emission rate is pretty low as compared to developed countries,” said Samrat Sengupta, programme director for Climate Change and Renewable Energy at the non-profit Centre for Science and Environment. “We are well on course to achieve the target of non-fossil fuel energy capacity to 500 gigawatts.” He said that renewable energy was much cheaper than fossil fuels but India faced problems with storage costs. “We are expecting the storage technology to become cheaper to ensure its increase in consumption,” he added. Mr Sengupta said India’s pledges put it in a good position compared to much of the world. “India has committed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by one billion tonnes – roughly 22 per cent from the business-as-usual scenario – and this means that per capita emissions in 2030 will be lower than all industrialised countries of the world, including China. “As far as the net-zero 2070 is concerned, India’s target matches the commitment of the already industrialised. The world must reach net-zero by 2050, which means that the OECD countries should get there by 2030 and China by 2040. The net-zero target is not equitable or ambitious.”

CJR at COP26: Inside the biggest story in the world

GLASGOW — A week ago this morning, thousands of people, many of them journalists, gathered at a convention center in Glasgow, Scotland, for the first full day of COP26, a crucial United Nations climate summit. They were greeted by a long line to get in, which would normally be a fine British welcome (some people, including me, would say that lines are the only thing Britain does well), except—unlike the best British lines—this one was apparently more of a surging, sharp-elbowed mass than an ordered, mannerly procession. (Those arriving by train from London had already faced weather-induced travel delays; actually, Britain does those well, too.) The Guardian’s Fiona Harvey said it was “inexplicable that the Scottish hosts have not managed this better having had nearly two years to prepare”; Laura Waddell later shot back, in The Scotsman, that it was the British government in London that organized the event, and quoted the tennis player Andy Murray’s famous gripe that he’s “British” whenever he wins and “Scottish” whenever he loses. At one point, a huge COP26 flag outside the venue began to fall down. It was, Fortune’s Katherine Dunn wrote, a “symbolic anecdote” that journalists “couldn’t resist.” The heavy media presence (eventually) inside the venue attested to the fact that COP26 is a huge story; as Sunita Narain, the director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment in India, put it during a recent briefing organized by Covering Climate Now, a climate-reporting project led by CJR and The Nation, journalists are often hesitant to tie the climate crisis to extreme-weather events, and so COP “becomes that one event” at which journalists can “report on the issues of climate change, the politics of climate change, the signs of climate change,” driving the climate story up the news cycle. This dynamic has been true at past COPs—particularly those that took place in Copenhagen, in 2009, and Paris, in 2015—but Mark Hertsgaard, the director of Covering Climate Now, wrote for CJR last week that American media seems to be paying much more attention this time round. “I’ve covered UN climate conferences since the 1992 Earth Summit”—the event that set the stage for subsequent COPs—and “never have US news organizations devoted as many newsroom resources, produced the sheer volume of coverage, or given the story such big play as they did in the opening days of COP26,” Hertsgaard observed. He singled out the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Guardian, and NPR for praise; TV, he wrote, “lagged, as it often does,” yet even there, the picture was positive by past standards. Media Matters for America calculated that the major cable networks collectively devoted more than four hours of airtime to the conference last Monday. Related: At COP26, some US newsrooms are finally stepping up. Will it last? Since the opening days of the conference—when many world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, were in attendance—the prominence of coverage across top US news outlets has waned a bit, superseded, in many places, by the Virginia gubernatorial election and the passage of Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill. (As I wrote last week, these are both climate stories, yet COP26 hasn’t always been discussed as part of them.) Still, a lot of coverage continues to come out of COP, with protests over the weekend bumping the story up the news cycle again. Importantly, the quality of much coverage has been good, too (though the volume makes it hard to generalize). Ahead of COP, many major outlets ran explainer packages clearly laying out the key players and the stakes, treating the conference as a story for everyone, and not just insider baseball for policy wonks. Coverage that I’ve seen of countries’ subsequent pledges has often trodden the line between skepticism and nihilism (falling signs and “FLOP26?” puns aside). The Post just splashed a big investigation finding that many countries are significantly under-reporting their emissions. Still, keen observers I spoke to said that some errors of focus and framing have persisted. Much topline coverage has focused on world leaders as personalities—suggesting, for example, that the absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping means that “China” isn’t at COP, even though the country sent its longtime climate envoy—as well as the other celebrities in attendance. (Leonardo DiCaprio showed up; the Queen, almost every major outlet told us, didn’t, on doctor’s orders.) Such figures have helped focus media attention on Glasgow, but ahead of the conference, Saleemul Huq, who leads the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh and has attended every COP, wrote for the Daily Star newspaper that journalists shouldn’t conceive of the conference as a leaders summit. Whether a given president “flies in for a photo opportunity or doesn’t fly in is immaterial to what’s going to happen in the COP,” Huq told me shortly after his column appeared. “But the photo opportunity is what gets the media.” (Inviting leaders was “a typical Boris Johnson ploy,” Huq added, referring to the British prime minister. “He’s showing you a shiny object and distracting you from the reality.”) Huq’s fear that world leaders would overshadow the nitty gritty has materialized, he told me yesterday—though he noted on Twitter that Bangladeshi media, for whom the climate stakes are huge and immediate, are still following the ins and outs of the process. COPs, Huq told me, are almost like two conferences at once: the formal negotiations, and then a “conference of people”—activists, Indigenous groups, businesses, and so on—that is harder for the press to characterize because of its sheer breadth. In recent days, I’ve seen lots of stories about activism at COP; numerous journalists have done an effective job of highlighting the disparities between the views of officials inside the conference center and protesters in the streets, as well as pointing out that many people from poorer countries couldn’t come at all, for reasons including the pandemic and sky-high travel and accommodation costs. But there’s room for the access story, in particular, to be more central. Addressing a demonstration on Friday, Vanessa Nakate, a climate activist from Uganda, said that “while the global south is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, they’re not on the front pages of the world’s newspapers.” Climate justice is, ultimately, the central story in Glasgow. “It’s really easy to focus on numbers and targets: it’s a very transactional and Western way of looking at the world,” Carla F. Fredericks—an enrolled citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation of North Dakota and CEO of the Christensen Fund, who came to COP to advocate for the inclusion of Indigenous rights and perspectives—told me last week. “If you start talking about reducing methane emissions, your average person doesn’t even understand what that means. And the urgency of this crisis is not communicated if it’s communicated through that lens.” Sign up for CJR's daily email As we enter the second week of the conference, questions of climate justice must remain front of mind. Whatever happens, the press—as Harvey, of The Guardian, argued recently—will need to avoid the temptation to frame the outcome as a total success or a total failure, since the reality will certainly be more nuanced; indeed, Huq told me that we should avoid talk of a unified “Glasgow Agreement” entirely, since this COP is about how “we implement the Paris Agreement—which we made six years ago—better: We’re not doing enough; we need to do more; how do we do that?” Of course, continued, top-level media attention is a prerequisite of all this. “It’s usually during the second, closing week of these conferences that the key agreements are or are not reached,” Hertsgaard wrote—so “the true test” for the press “is what comes next.” The many journalists who remain on the ground are still paying attention. Their number now includes me. Early this morning, I walked along the River Clyde from my hotel to the venue, which is comprised of a building that looks a Martian spaceship and a building that looks a bit like an armadillo—though once you’re inside its warren of makeshift halls and tunnels you lose any sense of the architecture. When I got there, there was no line (or portentous visual metaphor); I showed my ID, accreditation, and a negative COVID test (self-reported) to get inside, where I was presented with a reusable water bottle (aluminum), a thick wad of disinfectant wipes (“crisp pear”), and a cool COP26 face mask (Hertsgaard has since mandated that I wear a Covering Climate Now mask). I’m still finding my feet, but for the next four days, I’ll be covering media stories at and around the conference in this newsletter. Tips are very welcome, whether you’re here or not. You can reach me at jallsop@cjr.org. I cannot promise not to make an ABBA joke at some point. Other notable stories, by Mathew Ingram: CJR’s Feven Merid reports that McClatchy—which owns dozens of newspapers across fourteen states, and was acquired by Chatham Asset Management, a hedge fund, last year—will not participate in the next cycle of placements for the Report for America project. A source told Merid that the chain’s decision came in response to comments made earlier this year by Steven Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America, in an op-ed published by the Los Angeles Times. Waldman said that hedge funds have “a track record of cutting the reporting staff of local newsrooms to increase profits” and that something needs to be done to confront the damage they do to local journalism. Jonathan M. Katz argues in his Substack newsletter The Racket that the New York Times is the “secret weapon” of the far right, because of a propensity to quote conservative operatives as though they were run-of-the-mill US citizens, and to present their arguments in a facile or disingenuous way. “They manufacture the impression of a broad constituency for extreme right-wing ideas, softening the images of actors from far-right militia members to anti-vax vigilantes,” he writes. “They also make the politicians who champion their ideas appear more representative and more popular.” Irena Huang, a data reporter with ProPublica, writes about an investigative reporting project she worked on that documented failures in the US food safety system that allowed the spread of a virulent type of salmonella, which caused tens of thousands of people to become sick. Huang, who did PhD-level work in bioinformatics while pursuing a degree in electrical engineering before becoming a reporter, describes how she was able to trace the salmonella strain by looking at genomic sequencing data. A combination of shrinking supply and other industry constraints has pushed the price of newsprint up around the world, The Economist reports. “European newspapers will have to pay newsprint prices that are 50-70% higher in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the year before,” the magazine says, while publishers in Asia will face price increases of between twenty-five and forty-five percent, and North American prices are already that much higher this year compared with 2020. “It’s like tasering an elderly person who’s already on a pacemaker,” one British newspaper executive told The Economist. A company owned by the Chinese government is working on an offer to acquire Hong Kong’s influential South China Morning Post newspaper, according to a report from Bloomberg. “Bauhinia Culture (Hong Kong) Holdings Ltd. is interested in a deal with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. that would see the city’s most prominent English-language newspaper join its stable of media properties,” the news service reported. Alibaba has come under significant pressure from the Chinese government over the past year to divest some of its media assets, including the Post. The Guardian writes about a messy internal battle for control over Canada’s largest cable and media conglomerate, Rogers Communications, a $20-billion family-owned empire that owns not just cable and telecom assets but also TV networks and sports teams. “Kicked off by an accidental pocket dial that revealed an executive-level coup attempt, the battle has pitted mother against son, ensnared Toronto’s mayor and drawn comparisons to the HBO show Succession,” the newspaper writes. Bentkey Services, the company that owns the conservative website the Daily Wire, has filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s employer vaccine mandate in federal court, according to a report from Law and Crime. “The two-page filing itself contains no legal analysis, facts or arguments,” the site says, describing it as a petition filed directly with the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit asking for review of the mandate. “The Daily Wire will not comply with President Biden’s tyrannical vaccine mandate, and we are suing the Biden Administration to put a stop to their gross overreach,” Daily Wire co-founder and co-CEO Jeremy Boreing said in a statement.

After clean spell, air quality set to plummet in India's capital

Favourable weather conditions led to a rare drop in pollution in India's capital New Delhi, with residents last month breathing the cleanest air in at least four years but the authorities are warning that air quality is set to drop sharply in November. A delayed end to the monsoon, intermittent rains and a sharp pick-up in wind speeds ensured that the concentration of hazardous, small airborne particles known as PM2.5 in a cubic metre of air averaged 72 in October when air quality typically takes a turn for the worse. That was sharply down from an average concentration of 126 recorded in October 2020 - 25 times over the World Health Organization's safe limit - according to data gathered by the state-run Central Pollution Control Board. But a confluence of factors, including falling temperatures, a drop-off in winter wind speed and farmers preparing to torch farm waste of the previous rice crop to ready the field for planting the wheat crop, is likely to turn the air hazardous. "Because of frequent rains, most farmers didn't get to burn crop stubble, and now they have an even shorter window to dispose of crop waste," said Anumita Roychowdhury, an executive director at the Centre for Science and Environment think tank. "As rains ebb, more and more farmers will rush to burn rice stubble, and that will happen when broader weather patterns will allow pollutants to hang in the air, resulting in a thick smog," Roychowdhury said. Poor air quality over the capital is a reminder of the challenges India faces in reducing pollution as world leaders meet at the United Nations COP26 summit in Scotland to agree on strategies to fight global warming. Adding to the concerns, the Diwali festival of lights falls on Thursday when Indians will set off firecrackers as part of an ancient Hindu tradition. Delhi has banned the sale of firecrackers, but authorities rarely get to enforce such curbs. "The October air was clean, but we're really worried about November," said a senior government official involved in framing policies to curb air pollution. "Stubble burning could peak right after Diwali." Crop waste burning accounts for about a quarter of air pollution in October and November. Since 2018, India has been giving individual farmers a 50% subsidy and farm cooperatives 80% subsidy to buy machines that dispose of rice paddy stubble left out in the field by mechanised harvesters. Despite government subsidies, the machines that collect crop stubble and turn them into mulch are too expensive to buy. Farmers also complain that they need to pay upfront and then claim subsidies later - a process that takes about 10 months. "The Punjab and Haryana governments are responsible for implementing the subsidy programme, and their implementation may be flawed to some extent, but every year more and more farmers are using this equipment to get rid of crop stubble," the government official said, referring to India's two bread basket states. In October this year, crop waste burning came down by 52% against the same month last year, government data showed. In Pakistan's Lahore city, not far from the border with India, the air quality index rose to 341, the worst in the world on Monday, according to IQ Air. On Tuesday, air quality in Pakistan's second-most populous city was 162. In the winter months, industrial and vehicular emissions, smoke from brick kilns and crop fires lead to a sharp spike in air pollution in Lahore, just like in India.

India’s need for cheap fuel behind its push for compromise on coal at COP26

Even as its capital was blanketed by toxic smog, India led the charge to weaken anti-coal pledges at the COP26 summit, with experts saying it is prioritising its economic growth over the planet's future. Advertising The world's third-largest emitter teamed up with China to water down language on fossil fuels at the Glasgow conference, forcing a compromise: a climate deal that bound countries to "phase down" but not "phase out" coal use. India's resistance to more ambitious curbs on dirty energy is driven by its need for cheap fuel to power a booming economy and lift hundreds of millions of its citizens out of entrenched poverty. "We have a huge population which has still not reached a basic minimum standard of living," Samrat Sengupta, a climate change expert with the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, told AFP. Coal consumption has nearly doubled in the last decade -- only China burns more -- and the fuel still powers 70 percent of India's electricity grid. The government has dragged its feet on tougher regulations for coal plants and just last year announced a series of commercial mining auctions to boost domestic production. Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to weaning his country off coal, but told Glasgow delegates India would only aim to be carbon-neutral by 2070 -- a decade after China and 20 years after the world's other big emitters. But without decisive action sooner, experts warn India's emissions will soar in coming years and scuttle worldwide efforts to rein in global warming. ‘Stiff target to meet’ The effects of India's fossil fuel addiction are already keenly felt, with a shroud of thick grey haze enveloping New Delhi each winter. Coal plant emissions and vehicle exhaust fumes combine with smoke from farm fires to choke the megacity's 20 million residents. On the same day that COP26 delegates were finalising the global climate accord, Delhi shut its schools for a week to keep children inside. Smog is blamed for more than a million deaths in India annually, and a recent University of Chicago study found that air pollution was likely to reduce life expectancy by more than nine years for four in every 10 Indians. Modi's government aims to mitigate the problem by scaling up renewables, pledging to make solar power as big a share of the energy mix as coal by the end of the decade. But India lacks the high-tech capacity to meet demand for solar panels and relies heavily on expensive components from abroad. It has tried to spur domestic manufacturing of solar tech by hiking import duties, raising the cost of renewable energy. The 2030 solar goal "is a huge and a very stiff target to meet", said Sengupta of the Centre for Science and Environment. "It requires a lot of cheap finance and technologies to be made available." ‘Immense disappointment’ India has long argued that historical polluters such as the United States and Europe are obligated to provide the technical expertise and funding for climate mitigation. Its environment minister told COP26 delegates on Saturday that developing countries were "entitled to the responsible use of fossil fuels". Bhupender Yadav said nations with little historical responsibility for climate change should not be held to the same standards as the world's biggest per-capita emitters. Daily newsletter Receive essential international news every morning Subscribe "In such a situation, how can anyone expect developing countries to make promises of phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies?" he asked. The weakened COP26 commitment was adopted with deep reluctance by other nations, which were anxious to get the deal over the line after two weeks of marathon negotiations. Other developing nations -- including Pacific island countries facing the existential threat of rising sea levels as a result of global warming -- bristled at the suggestion that India's last-minute intervention was done on their behalf. Fiji's attorney general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum expressed "not just our astonishment, but immense disappointment in the manner in which this has been introduced".

At COP26, Nations Still Have to Do the Heavy Lifting to Mitigate Climate Change

World leaders have come and gone from the much anticipated international climate conference in Glasgow. While they announced some significant commitments to combat the climate crisis, the devil is always in the details. Negotiators must now hammer out the specifics that will determine if COP26 will be written into history as a success or failure. “The first week of COP26 has resulted in a lot of promises to curb the climate crisis,” said Brian Wygal, director of environmental studies and sciences at Adelphi University. “But the world has heard these promises before. … We need actions, not words.” Critics like Greta Thunberg and thousands of other young environmental activists who filled the streets outside the conference charge that the fix is already in. “The leaders are not doing nothing. They are actually creating loopholes, shaping frameworks to benefit themselves to continue profiting from this destructive system,” Thunberg said. After the first week, here are the biggest headlines so far at COP26, known formally as the 26th Conference of the Parties: For the first time, leaders committed to a series of measures that, when combined, would put the world on track to stay below 2 degrees Celsius (below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, according to research from the University of Melbourne. More than 100 countries signed on to a declaration to end deforestation by 2030. The nations represent 85 percent of the world’s forests. More than 100 countries, including the United States, agreed to cut their methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. More than 40 countries committed to phasing out their coal-burning power plants by the 2030s or 2040s, including heavily coal-reliant countries like Canada, South Korea, Poland, and Indonesia. For the first time, India committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (albeit not until 2070). India is the world’s fourth largest annual emitter of carbon dioxide. More than 40 nations, including India, China, the United States, the UK, and the members of the EU joined the Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda, agreeing to coordinate the release of clean energy technologies to drive down their cost. Twenty countries, including the United States, promised to end public funding for fossil fuel projects abroad and funnel the money to green energy projects instead. The G-20 agreed to stop financing coal-burning power plants overseas. A group of investors, banks, and insurers with collective control of $130 trillion committed to reaching net-zero emissions across their portfolios by 2050, forming the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. The Global Energy Alliance, a group of international development banks and philanthropic foundations, pledged $10.5 billion to help developing countries transition to renewable energy. The group aims to create 150 million jobs and raise $100 billion for the clean energy transition in the developing world. The UK, EU, US, France, and Germany signed off on the Just Energy Transition Partnership, pledging $8.5 billion to help South Africa shift from coal power to renewables. Overall Climate Ratings, Chart Gambia, in West Africa, is the only nation on target to limit global warming to the recommended 1.5 degrees Celsius. Photo credit: Climate Action Tracker For observers like Patrick Brown, an assistant professor in the department of meteorology and climate science at San Jose State University, the key is not the public pronouncements in Glasgow, but what countries actually do domestically. “Emissions are going to be addressed by domestic policies at the level of each country,” he said, “not pledges at these international meetings where everyone has a social incentive to overpromise and the pledges are nonbinding.” With critical details still left to be sorted out and less than a decade remaining until 2030, the deadline for many emissions-reduction targets, here’s what you need to know about the lofty goals of COP26: Keep 1.5 Alive Preventing the worst effects of climate change by limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) is the goal underpinning all others at COP26, especially because studies have highlighted the tremendous difference an extra half-degree would make. That small difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius is very significant, according to an October report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of the world’s leading climate scientists. For example, with a 1.5-degree rise in temperature, 14 percent of the world’s population would be exposed to severe heat at least once every five years, and an ice-free Arctic summer would happen at least every 100 years. At 2 degrees, those numbers worsen to 37 percent and once every 10 years. The extra half a degree of warming would result in twice as many plant and animal species going extinct. A 1.5-degree temperature increase would kill 70-90 percent of coral reefs, while a 2-degree temperature increase would eliminate almost all the world’s coral reefs. Six years ago, leaders who gathered in Paris did agree to keep warming below 1.5 degrees, but each country was to set its own goals — called nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and responding to the threats of climate change. The first round of NDCs fell short, however, putting the world on track to warm by more than 2.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. And in the years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, emissions have continued to rise, falling only slightly during the COVID pandemic in 2020. The small West African nation of Gambia is the only country on track to meet the targets it set in Paris, according to Climate Action Tracker. The signatories of the Paris Agreement agreed to submit updated NDCs every five years, and ahead of this year’s conference, 118 countries had done so. Taken together, they covered about 90 percent of the world’s emissions, according to Climate Action Tracker. Heading into the conference, some powerful economies, including the US, UK, EU, and China, submitted stronger NDCs, but others, including Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Singapore, had not committed to tougher emissions-reduction targets. Even for those that did commit to strengthening their climate policies at COP26, there is no guarantee that they will make good on their commitments unless an enforcement mechanism is created. “There’s the stated goal that they have at the national level and then what might actually happen, and those are not necessarily the same thing,” said Brown. Cop26, Glasgow, November, 2021 At the Conference of Parties in November, countries may finally establish rules for trading carbon offsets. Photo credit: UK COP26 Ditch Coal UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged all governments and private companies to “end the deadly addiction to coal.” Nearly 40 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions came from the burning of coal in 2019. However, several Asian countries — especially China — stand in the way. Despite its target of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060, China built three times more coal power capacity in 2020 than the rest of the world combined, according to Global Energy Monitor and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. China, India, Japan, and the US are notably absent from a COP26 pledge to phase out coal-burning power plants. India, Indonesia, Japan, and Vietnam, along with China, are responsible for 80 percent of the world’s planned new coal plants, according to Carbon Tracker. India, Indonesia, and Vietnam must rely on coal power to pull millions of people out of poverty, but China and Japan, as more developed economies, are in a better position to switch to renewable energy. Encourage Investment in Renewable Energy Since the Paris Agreement was adopted, the price of renewable energy worldwide has fallen significantly, leaving less reason for countries to justify their continued reliance on fossil fuels. The costs of offshore and onshore wind, solar photovoltaic panels, and concentrating solar power (which uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight) all fell substantially in 2020. Solar and Wind Costs Falling Chart Costs for several types of green power are decreasing. PV stands for photovoltaic solar power, which involves semiconductors; CSP for concentrated solar power, in which lenses focus sunlight onto a receiver. Photo credit: Irena The International Renewable Energy Agency found that solar panels are a consistently cheaper form of energy production than new coal- and gas-fired power plants in most places around the world. “Clean energy technologies, particularly wind and solar and battery technologies, have advanced substantially over the last 10 or 20 years, and it really is a different economic investment picture today than it was even five years ago,” said Robert Darrow, a politics instructor at Mount Holyoke College whose research focuses on a clean energy transition. Secure International Finance Developed nations agreed more than a decade ago that by 2020, they would collectively give $100 billion a year to developing nations to help them mitigate — and adapt to — climate change. They fell one-fifth short on that promise in 2019, giving an estimated $79.6 billion. This funding is considered vital to limiting global warming as developing countries have said they are only willing and able to take action with help from the developed world. John Kerry, the US special envoy for climate change, said he was confident developed countries would follow through on their $100 billion promise by 2023. But even $100 billion is not enough, according to Kingsmill Bond, an energy strategist at Carbon Tracker. “It’s actually not very much money in the scheme of what’s required,” he said. “It needs to be seen in the context of a much bigger shift.” Kerry agrees that the $100 billion is just a fraction of what’s needed. He hopes that banks will step up to the plate. “$100 billion doesn’t do it,” he said. “The only way we’re going to get it done is if trillions of dollars are forthcoming, and they are.” This funding is crucial if developing nations are to move quickly toward renewable energy, skipping over the period of heavy reliance on fossil fuels that helped catapult the world’s rich nations to their current status. Developing countries are also pressuring rich nations to pay for their past emissions. “This finance is not charity,” said Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment, based in New Delhi, India. “This finance is to make sure the polluters pay the cost [of polluting] so the emerging countries can actually do things differently.” In some cases, where the governments of rich countries have left a gap between what they say and what they do, the private sector has stepped up to the plate. The Global Energy Alliance, a group of banks and private foundations, aims to raise $100 billion of its own to help developing countries in the fight against climate change. Global Carbon Dioxide EmissionS, Chart, 1990-2018 Greenhouse gas emissions — in large part from the US, Europe and Central Asia, and East Asia and Pacific nations — have shown few signs of diminishing. Photo credit: EPA Improve Access to Climate Funds At the same time, the world is waking up to the need for improved access to existing climate funds. In March of this year, the Green Climate Fund approved just over $1 billion for 15 climate mitigation and adaptation projects in developing countries. However, only 1.5 percent of the money went directly to institutions in those nations, according to the World Resources Institute. Most of the funds first passed through institutions like the United Nations Development Programme or the World Bank before being dispersed. Not only does this delay the projects, it also shifts control of development efforts away from the countries that should benefit from them. “The reality is that we’re actually taking choice and autonomy away from the societies we’re trying to help. A lot of times we’re pushing policies that are not locally appropriate or helpful,” said Daniel Beers, an associate professor in the department of justice studies at James Madison University, whose research focuses on global poverty and humanitarian aid. “There’s been a really, really long history of the global north pushing policies that benefited [rich countries] in the name of development or humanitarian aid. I think it’s fundamentally important that you actually put control in the hands of the countries that are trying to address these issues in their own societies.” In response, the UK and Fiji spearheaded the establishment of a taskforce that aims to address the “urgent need to streamline access to climate finance.” They are working alongside Bhutan, Belize, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal, Germany, Sweden, and the US, as well as the Green Climate Fund and the World Bank, to address these issues. Iron Out Enforcement As historic as the Paris Agreement was, it left plenty of room for improvement. “A big weakness of the Paris Agreement,” said Darrow, is that the commitments agreed to by signatories were essentially voluntary: “There is no enforcement mechanism.” Streamlining the way reductions in carbon emissions are tracked and measured is key to developing a common system so that the world’s nations can hold each other accountable. This is what the organizers of COP26 called finalizing “the Paris rulebook.” Finding a way to enforce targets is critical if the world is to stay below 1.5 degrees of warming. “If we don’t have global rules that will restrain every country, we will find that in every decade there will be a new super-polluter,” said Narain. But ironing out enforcement could be tricky, as developing nations look to rich countries to compensate for their decadeslong emissions. Beers points to the need for historical emitters to do their fair share. “To me, justice looks like the bigger, more powerful countries — not just North America and Europe, but some of the middle-income countries — taking responsibility for the share of the problem that they’ve created and not requiring that small, under-resourced countries make the same changes at the same pace that they will,” he said. Set Rules for International Carbon Markets Delegates have been trying to sort out the rules for international carbon markets since they were originally written into the Paris Agreement. Carbon markets do two things: Encourage countries to do as much as they can to combat climate change (even more than promised in their NDCs) and help countries that are struggling to meet their targets. They do this by allowing countries that have surpassed their commitments to sell credits to countries that have been unable to meet their own targets. If structured correctly, carbon markets can provide incentives to get the world on track to combat climate change. But the rules are complicated, and if delegates fail to work through the nuanced issues of carbon credits, rich countries could end up using them as a way to avoid taking real action. Advance Adaptation Speeding up adaptation efforts is another major issue in the fight against climate change. Take Bangladesh, for example, where more than 10 million people have already become climate migrants, according to Shahriar Alam, the country’s minister for foreign affairs. Bangladesh’s low-lying lands, dense population, poor infrastructure, and heavy reliance on farming put its people at risk, especially when rising seas increase the land’s salt content, wiping out crops. To counter this threat, Bangladeshi farmers have been experimenting with more salt-resistant strains of rice and developing innovative solutions like floating seedbeds. Half a world away, the Netherlands is also experiencing sea level rise and flooding, which threaten to leave the country entirely underwater sometime in the next century. The Dutch, however, have employed a number of innovative solutions to keep rising seas at bay. In January, the two countries, joined by the UK, Egypt, Malawi, Saint Lucia, and the UNDP, formed the Adaptation Action Coalition, which has grown to 38 member countries. The group aims to “accelerate global action on adaptation to achieve a climate-resilient world by 2030.” Among possible adaptations: improving early warning systems, building more resilient infrastructure, boosting flood defenses, and restoring natural habitats. Joe Biden, New Jersey President Joe Biden speaks at a Build Back Better event in New Jersey ahead of his trip to Europe for the G-20 and COP26 meetings. Photo credit: Phil Murphy / Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) The US in the Spotlight President Joe Biden has had to patch up America’s reputation at COP26, as the US is the only country to have left and rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement. In his speech on November 1, he apologized to the world for his predecessor’s decision to pull the United States from the Paris Agreement. “There’s a lot of skepticism from the global community about the United States right now, so [Biden is] kind of paddling upstream against that,” said Darrow, who explained that the nation’s dramatic shift in climate policy under Donald Trump left the rest of the world wondering if it could revert back to its old stance with the next president. Biden has attempted to strengthen the nation’s climate action by announcing a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. He has also introduced legislation that includes substantial funds to fight climate change in the US. Congress recently passed an infrastructure bill, including $47 billion in funds for climate resilience, which will help Americans prepare for the rising number of extreme weather events. A larger spending bill including more than $500 billion for efforts to fight climate change remains in limbo. This bill includes $320 billion in tax credits for renewable energy development.

India’s new climate commitments will be a bold, ambitious and a challenge said Expert

At COP26, India’s announcement to become carbon neutral by 2070, reveals that it has committed itself to decisive action to curb runaway greenhouse gas emissions from mid-century. At the 26th Conference of Parties (CoP26), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a five-fold strategy termed as the panchamrita to achieve this feat. These five points include: India will get its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030 India will meet 50 percent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030 India will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now onwards till 2030 By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by less than 45 percent So, by the year 2070, India will achieve the target of Net Zero Also Read: #COP26: India’s Grandstanding, Poor Implementing At COP26, India’s announcement to become carbon neutral by 2070, reveals that it has committed itself to decisive action to curb runaway greenhouse gas emissions from mid-century. It will become clear only after India submits its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) which gives out the details on how exactly it plans to go about achieving these targets. Net-zero is when a country’s carbon emissions are offset by taking out equivalent carbon from the atmosphere so that emissions in balance are zero. In terms of Peaking year, Peaking year is achieving net-zero by a specific date means specifying a year after which emissions will start to reduce. For instance, China has announced the peaking year of 2030 for a purported net-zero emissions year of 2060. The U.S. had the peaking year of 2007 and expects to be net-zero by 2050. The United Kingdom peaked in 1973 but expects to be net-zero only by 2050. Though there is no clarity yet from the government, experts in the run-up to COP26 have wrestled with these questions. India’s climate change targets are laudable and put the ball firmly in the court of the already rich world to now show that they mean business. This is because India has not been a historical contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions from 1870 to 2019, its emissions have added up to a minuscule 4 percent of the global total. India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has done a projection for the country’s energy mix for 2030. A study suggested that for a 2070 net-zero year and peaking year of 2040, India would have to reduce the emissions intensity (emissions per unit GDP) by 85% — it has so far reduced it to 24% from 2005 levels. The share of non-hydro Renewable Energy has to increase to 65% from the 11% today; the share of electric cars in passenger sales has to go from 0.1% today to 75% by 2040, and the share of fossil energy in primary energy has to decrease from 73% to 40%. For the peaking year of 2030, these targets would be stiffer, by analyst Vaibhav Chaturvedi, at the Council for Energy, Environment and Water in March 2021. In terms of Renewable energy, India, as part of its NDC in 2015, had committed itself to installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. Till 28 February 2021, the country had achieved 94 GW, comprising a 25 percent share in total installed capacity for power generation. If large hydro installed capacity is included (45 GW by February 2021), then India’s non-fossil energy capacity is 139 GW — close to 38 percent of installed capacity — according to the Centre for Science and Environment. Diplomatic compulsions likely forced India to announce a net-zero date as it was the only one among major economies not to have specified a net-zero year until now. India, however, should have said that it will reach net zero by 2070, only if other developed countries themselves commit to reaching net-zero before 2050. “The net-zero pledge will be much less consequential to what India actually does than the detailed sub-pledges. ”PM Modi’s plans to decarbonize the Indian Railways by 2030 was a good example of how India ought to be demonstrating change at a sectoral level and that in turn would be more politically palatable than making huge transformations, said Navroz Dubash, Professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. In terms of Carbon dioxide reduction, there is also no clarity on how many of the announced targets are unconditional and how many are conditional. At the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks, wealthy nations promised US$100 billion a year in climate finance to developing nations by 2020. But that goal has not been met. “The statement on the required $1 trillion in finance suggests that India is telling the developed countries we are watching you on providing finance, the way you are watching us on emissions,” said Prof. Dubash. He added that a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide reduction in the next decade also needed more clarity. A billion tonnes would be premised on a reference point that shows what the emissions would be in a business-as-usual scenario. “We don’t yet know what scenario has been considered. This is the time we should have more careful and broad modeling over a consistent period to detail our emission trajectories towards 2030,” he noted. Sunita Narain, Director-General, CSE said, “India’s national targets are bold and ambitious, and will be immensely challenging as well to achieve. Going by our comparatively low contribution to global emissions and considering that our economy needs to grow and meet the energy needs of millions of poor citizens, we did not need to make such an ambitious pledge. But these are a challenge to the already rich world to step up the time for procrastination is over,”. Source: The Hindu, Down to Earth